With the victory, the Bears improve to 19-5 overall and 14-4 in OAC play, while the Blue Streaks fall to 8-10 in conference play and 12-13 overall.
The Polar Bears will be the No. 2 seed in next week's OAC Tournament. ONU will host No. 7 seed John Carroll on Wednesday at 7:30 p.m. If Northern prevails, it will face the winner of No. 3 seed Muskingum and No. 6 seed Otterbein.
Ohio Northern honored its seniors, Nate Lieb and B.J. Theisen, in a pre-game ceremony before Saturday's contest.
Against the Blue Streaks, sophomore Kyle Gehle scored 13 points for ONU, and junior Bart Hostetler had 11 points and pulled down nine rebounds. Junior Mike Hunter grabbed a game-high 10 rebounds.
After JCU grabbed a 2-0 lead, the Bears exploded offensively to push the score to 18-7 with 11:11 left in the half. Northern was led by Gehle’s 10 points during the run.
At the 8:48 mark, a layup by Hostetler again gave ONU an 11-point lead at 22-11.
Junior Jared Bostelman nailed a three-pointer with 6:00 left in the first half to give the Bears a 10-point lead, 25-15.
A free throw by Mike Hunter with 21 seconds left gave Northern a 34-24 lead going into intermission.
In the second half, the Bears continued their dominance as Badenhop connected on a three-pointer with 12:18 left that gave ONU a 20-point advantage, 50-30.
Hostetler hit a layup with 4:28 left to give Ohio Northern its largest lead of the game 68-46.
“This was an emotional win for us,” said ONU head coach Jeff Coleman. “We focused all week on making sure that we sent our seniors Nate and B.J. out with a win.”
The Blue Streaks were led by Justin Ragor, who dropped 14 points, and Demetrius Travis who scored 13 points.
JCU out-rebounded ONU by grabbing 41 boards compared to the Bears 36.
John Carroll connected on 19-of-47 shooting for 40.4 percent, while Northern hit 26-of-66 shots for 39.4 percent.